#tamara blake

[amageish]

So, Felicia Hardy mentions having a girlfriend in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and this has resulted in a lot of discussion... I wanna talk about it!

One thing I find really interesting about the conversation is that so many articles discussing it credit Felicia's bisexuality to this moment from 2021, where she and Odessa Drake have an on-panel kiss followed by an off-panel one-night-stand.

While this is pretty friggin' gay and good for them, I feel like reducing the story to "Black Cat kissed a girl in 2021 and that's why she has a girlfriend in the video game" is missing a lot of the larger context... so let's discuss some of the history of Felicia Hardy, AKA the chaotic crime bisexual Black Cat.

Felicia Hardy debuted in 1979. Tamara Blake, her "oldest friend" and female lover, first appeared in 1984, only 5 years later, debuting in the Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual "Cat and Mouse."

Dropping by for a night of "harmless frolic," Tamara robs Felicia, aiming to play a game of cat-and-mouse with her friend. While their relationship is not explicitly romantic in this story, Tamara is portrayed as very close to her ex-partner-in-crime and very familiar with her relationship habits. She is surprised by the reveal that Black Cat is trying to settle down with Spider-Man - and to be skeptical about if Felicia will be able to tie herself down to one man... almost as if she knows Felicia has a pattern of behaviour when it comes to monogamy.

I don't know if this story was intentionally gay or not, but it would be used as a foundation for later queer storytelling about Felicia, so it seems worth mentioning it here!

What is pretty explicit, however, is Felicia's relationship with her partner Diana in the 2002 Spider-Girl series. They are just called partners, not lovers, but the framing and discussion of it is obvious enough that, in my opinion, if you know that gay people exist and can accept the possibility of them being gay, then you probably will read this and go "Oh, yeah, they are gay."

This story does not take place in Earth-616 and is primarily focused on Mayday Parker as Spider-Girl and Felicity Hardy as Scarlet Spider, but Felicity does have two moms - and we love that for her!

Jumping ahead a bit, Tamara returned via flashback in Black Cat #10, released in 2020, and this fleshed out their backstory together. It revealed how they trained together under Black Fox as their mentor and clearly shows them using slight-of-hand to hold hands and canoodle without Fox noticing what they're up to.

This is just a super-cute panel to me. That's such a clever use of slight-of-hand; I love it so much...

The next year, in Black Cat Vol 2 #3, there's a vision of Black Cat surrounded by a harem of her lovers, which includes Tamara and Odessa alongside several of her more famous male affairs.

Shortly thereafter, she kissed Odessa on the lips, as discussed earlier. In case the earlier evidence was not enough for you, Felicia Hardy is now formally unquestionably a girl-kisser. We even later get to see her and Drake's one-night-stand via flashback, in case there was any lingering doubts about what happened.

However, it also doesn't end there. It's not like Felicia just kissed a women, Marvel patted themselves on the back, and now she's been back to dating Peter Parker exclusively. There are plenty of comic characters who have had one defining "queer moment" and mum's been the word on their queerness since then... Felicia, meanwhile, is very loudly bisexual.

Immediately, she got a Pride variant cover in 2021 and has been on at least one cover every year since. My favourite is probably this one from 2022, which is both very poly and also features Peter Parker... I'm sure if you'd ask Marvel corporate they'd say he is just there as an ally, but it's still funny to me.

In 2021, she was the character used for the grand return of Jessie Drake (Felicia really has a thing for women with last names that end with -ake, apparently). Jessie was Marvel's first explicitly transgender character, debuting all the way back in 1992. After getting off to a rocky start, Felicia blows up a building with Jessie's help and they go out for dinner.

(This story was not followed up on as the book it was supposed to lead into got cancelled. Drake has not so much as cameoed since. F in the chat for Jessie Drake).

In 2022, there was an 5-issue mini-series all about Tony Stark and Felicia bonding over their mutual problem of supervillain ex-girlfriends trying to murder them. Of the two halves of the pair, Felicia gets the better deal - Tamara not only teams up with Felicia and Tony to fight Tony's ex, but they do so much flirting that Tony forgets that are not currently dating.

And, finally, in 2023, there was another Felicia story in a Pride issue wherein she hooked up with a pseudo-diety and also worked with Gambit to fuck with some transphobes in the process. Good for them!

This is not by any means a definitive list of everything gay Felicia has done - she famously flirts with MJ and Cindy a lot, for instance - but I hope it provides some larger context to Felicia's sexuality in the game.

Moreover, I hope it shows that queer storytelling isn't always about writing a single gay kiss that generates headlines. A lot of Marvel and DC queer storytelling that goes viral isn't the actual multi-issue multi-comic-run queer stuff; it's the one big kiss or something subtextual that happens to feature MCU heroes with better SEO then people like Felicia have... and I think it's the more under-the-radar stuff that's often more valuable.

#felicia hardy #black cat #spider-man 2 #tamara blake #odessa drake #jessie drake

[xuanelle]

Felicia has now kissed two different women on panel and I couldn't be happier about it [Iron Cat #2]

#wednesday spoilers #felicia hardy #tamara blake #bracken.txt #lgbtincomics

[why-i-love-comics]

Iron Cat #5 (2022)

written by Jed MacKay art by Pere Perez & Frank D'Armata

#black cat #felicia hardy #tamara blake #marvel #wednesday spoilers #spoilers #comic spoilers

[ewzzy]

From Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #4 and I know what you're thinking... they have totally smooched right?

Yeah duh of course they have. It just took 36 year for Tamara Blake to ever be mentioned again and that to be revealed. Thanks Jed MacKay for clearing that up!

#black cat #felicia hardy #tamara blake #spider-man #bob denatale #ron randall #jed mackay #pere perez #marvel comics

[ironicons]

iron cat icons. LIKE OR CREDIT @IRONICONS ON TUMBLR IF YOU SAVE/USE hi! it's been a hot minute since i've touched this account. wanted to make some iron cat icons because she's so <33

#comic icons #comics #marvel #marvel icons #marvel comics #iron cat #tamara blake #iron cat icons #tamara blake icons

[comicsiswild]

Iron Cat (2022) #4

#iron cat #tamara blake #felicia hardy #black cat #iron man #tony stark #marvel #marvel comics

[big-gay-apocalypse]

Origin story

// Iron Cat (2022) #2

#iron cat (2022) #felicia hardy #black cat #tamara blake

[emily-prentits]

no no get away from each other i don't want to write tonight

#jo reads iron cat #iron cat #felicia hardy #tamara blake #thea talks

[comicwaren]

“And how do I know it was you? Who else would steal the Iron Cat?” -- Iron Man

Cover art for Iron Cat #001

Art by Pere Pérez and Frank D’Armata

#iron cat #tamara blake #iron man #tony stark #black cat #felicia hardy #cover art #marvel #comics #marvel comics

[carothehotmess]

Every time I watch a show that actually does a well-written, not-quite-enemies-but-definitely-not-friends-to-colleagues-to-friends-to-partners-to-most-important-relationship-in-their-lives-to-lovers slow burn arc, I get angry all over again remembering what we could have had with Bellarke

#the setup was there!! #the timeline the character development the chemistry and even the fucking actors were committing to it!!! #anyway i am very very giddy over chenford #i cannot wait to see angela and tamaras reactions to this news #the rookie #chenford #the 100 #bellarke #bellamy blake #clarke griffin #lucy chen #tim bradford #sorry just been in my bellarke feels a lot lately

[xuanelle]

"I can't lie to her. I never could." :(( [iron cat (2022) #1] alt text id

#tamara is back which is really nice but ough 🫠 #wednesday spoilers #tamara blake #felicia hardy #marvel #wednesday spoilers #bracken.txt

[why-i-love-comics]

Iron Cat #4 (2022)

written by Jed MacKay art by Pete Perez & Frank D'Armata

#black cat #tamara blake #felicia hardy #marvel #wednesday spoilers #spoilers #comic spoilers

[blackramhall]

They are no great crimes anymore, Watson. The criminal class has lost all enterprise and originality. At best they commit some bungling villainy with a motive so transparent that even a Scotland Yard official can see through it.

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes - Billy Wilder (1970)

Manor Murder Mystery

#sherlock holmes #The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes #arthur conan doyle #detective stories #mystery #Billy Wilder #Robert Stephens #Colin Blakely #John Watson #Geneviève Page #Christopher Lee #Mycroft Holmes #Irene Handl #Mrs Hudson #Clive Revill #Tamara Tumanova #Stanley Holloway #Mollie Maureen #Catherine Lacey #queen victoria #221b baker street

[moviemosaics]

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

directed by Billy Wilder, 1970

#The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes #Billy Wilder #movie mosaics #Robert Stephens #Colin Blakely #Geneviève Page #Christopher Lee #Tamara Toumanova

[comicsiswild]

Iron Cat (2022) #1

#iron cat #tamara blake #black cat #felicia hardy #marvel #marvel comics

[big-gay-apocalypse]

Oh my god. We do have something in common.

// Iron Cat (2022) #1

#iron cat (2022) #felicia hardy #black cat #iron man #tony stark #welcome back tamara blake